Lavori
Il lungo addio
Raymond Chandler
Il grande sonno
Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler frasi celebri
Il lungo addio
2001; p. 141
Il grande sonno
Raymond Chandler Frasi e Citazioni
“Nella vita non è mai il buono a tenersi la ragazza.”
Il lungo addio
citato in Edmondo Aroldi, Eric Ambler, introduzione a Eric Ambler, La maschera di Dimitrios, Mondadori, 1972
“Sono uno spasso, no? – domandò. Risposi bruscamente: – Come un filippino il sabato sera.”
2001; p. 141
Il grande sonno
2001; p. 145
Il grande sonno
Raymond Chandler: Frasi in inglese
“To say goodbye is to die a little.”
Origine: The Long Goodbye
Origine: The Big Sleep (1939), Chapter 32, Phillip Marlowe
Contesto: What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that. Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn't have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting. His heart was a brief, uncertain murmur. His thoughts were as gray as ashes. And in a little while he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep.
“I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.”
Origine: The Long Goodbye
“There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart.”
"Great Thought" (19 February 1938), published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976)
Contesto: There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.
Origine: The Big Sleep (1939), chapter 3
Contesto: Her hot black eyes looked mad. "I don't see what there is to be cagey about," she snapped. "And I don't like your manners."
"I'm not crazy about yours," I said. "I didn't ask to see you. You sent for me. I don't mind your ritzing me or drinking your lunch out of a Scotch bottle. I don't mind your showing me your legs. They're very swell legs and it's a pleasure to make their acquaintance. I don't mind if you don't like my manners. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings. But don't waste your time trying to cross-examine me."
“She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.”
Origine: Farewell, My Lovely
“I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate.”
Origine: The Big Sleep (1939)
Origine: Philip Marlowe's Guide to Life
Origine: The Big Sleep (1939), Chapter 1
Contesto: The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn't seem to be really trying.
"About the screenplay for Strangers on a Train" (notes, 1950), first published in Raymond Chandler Speaking (1962), section "Chandler on the Film World and Television", p. 134
Contesto: When you read a story, you accept its implausibilities and extravagances, because they are no more fantastic than the conventions of the medium itself. But when you look at real people, moving against a real background, and hear them speaking real words, your imagination is anaesthetized. You accept what you see and hear, but you do not complement it from the resources of your own imagination. The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half-piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.
"Great Thought" (19 February 1938), published in The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler (1976)
Contesto: There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.
“Dead men are heavier than broken hearts.”
Origine: The Big Sleep
“A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.”
Origine: Farewell, My Lovely (1940), chapter 13
“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”
Origine: The Big Sleep (1939), Chapter 6
Contesto: The registration read: Carmen Sternwood, 3765 Alta Brea Crescent, West Hollywood. I went back to my car again and sat and sat. The top dripped on my knees and my stomach burned from the whiskey. No more cars came up the hill. No lights went on in the house before which I was parked. It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.
“The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.”
Origine: The Long Goodbye
“You talk too damn much and too damn much of it is about you.”
Origine: The Long Goodbye
“As honest as you can expect a man to be in a world where its going out of style.”
Origine: The Big Sleep
